March 28, 2008 by T Love.

I have good and bad sessions. I need to have more consistant good sessions in order to be recommended to be checked out. The problem plaguing me is not executing the correct sequence of procedures to accomodate the ever changing situation at hand. I’m spending alot of thought process on this which is a contributing factor to me slipping on other basic areas  that I know better and just know. I keep plugging at it and move on but it is tough. For whatever reason, I’m having a difficult time gaining momentum on CD/FD procedure wise. This position isn’t that difficult, however, I feel like my actions and verbage is under very tight observations leaving very little wiggle room - which I believe is another contributing factor in my lack of momentum.

Tomorrows another day and I’ll give it my all!

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March 23, 2008 by T Love.

My trainers were not present today. The last few hours of my shift, I finally got some training by another FPL. During debrief, he was blunt and said “You know the stuff but you have no organizational skills and cannot execute it.” Also mentioned was that “I’m too passive”.  I couldn’t agree more. Its tough making that position my own and I definately need to take control of that frequency and dish it out. Some good did come out our training session though. A few concepts really sunk in and he opened up my eyes to what I think is a good organizational technique. I learned the power of “standby” and “clearance on request” and let those suckers hold for a few minutes while I cleaned up my area.

Yesterday and last evening was rough for me. After todays session, I am even more determined to make it through not only clearance delivery but GC and LC. CD position is really not that tough but leave it up to me to make it harder than it needs to be. Once I find my groove, I’ll be golden but in the meantime, its going to suck ass. I have the next few days to reflect and I believe I have a rough prototype of a basic system that should work for me come wednesday.

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March 22, 2008 by T Love.

The following passage is rated (R) for language. Not advised for children.

Training at this facitlity during the busy season is not worth the time or the money. This blows, it really does. I just cannot handle the shear volume of traffic on CD/FD with only 55 hrs (Really about 30 hrs) of OJT time. The last few days, I was feeling pretty good about the position. Well, my ass was handed to me on a silver platter for 1 hour this afternoon on FD/CD. My trainer let me go down the shitter and I stayed there until about a minute before I was relieved. The fucking volume of calls, shit to do, and crap to remember is just ridiculous at PBI.

The clearances that we have to issue for guys going south into Miami’s airspace is a fucking joke. If there was some pre-defined routes for these frequently used airports, life would be much less complicated. PBI airspace also sucks ass which complicates these clearances and routes. The shit to remember for this position is fucking ridiculous. Probably more than any other facitlity. And if you don’t know everything like the back of your hand - and you have to think about something - then you just lost a few seconds of time and guess what? You are already behind and it doesn’t get better. If you have to call miami center for something, thats time that you are not talking to aircraft - though they are still calling.

Because I have a TRACON at PBI, my first pay raise isn’t till I check out on all 3 positions upstairs in the tower. Whereas most stand alone tower facilities, the first pay raise comes after the first 2 positions. Eventually, I’ll recieve that pay raise of about $7,000 but I can tell you….its not worth it at PBI. The money I’m earning at PBI is not worth it for me. I would much rather work at DAB which is a TRACON and Tower Level 9 facility like PBI than continue at PBI any day. The airspace here is ridiculous. Give me a level 7 facility like PIE or Daytona or even Midway, and I’ll be a happy man. I much rather earn an easier $55,000 than work my ass off at a screwed up facility like PBI for $75,000. It’s just not worth it for that money.

How bad is the money situation? I’m working part time weather observing on my days off just to make ends meet. I work 6-7 days per week. If I didn’t have the part time job, I would be belly up financially in less than 2 months. I work part time to put food on the table and pay bills. I profit about $100-$200 extra per month now b/c of the part time job. BTW, even if I worked overtime at PBI, per hour, it still wouldn’t pay more than weather observing!

I have no life. I have no friends except a few guys at work - thats it. I work 6-7 days a week. I rarely go out. I’m mentally drained from work each day. I’m broke. Cost of living and expenses here in West palm beach are much higher than Daytona. My GF lives nearly 4 hours away which I see every 2 weeks. I’m almost depressed though I try to remain positive and look towards the future. This sucks. This is not what I had remotely envisioned. Yeah, I’m in the warm weather during the winter months, but I’d gladly give that up for the aeformentioned in this paragraph.

Other than that, I’m doing well. haha.

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March 21, 2008 by T Love.

Training for me in the past 7 days has really come about a full 180 as my trainer told me. Thats in a positive way! However, I’m not good enough to handle the high volume yet. I’m pushing myself but still finding myself making stupid easy mistakes on stuff that I know already. Arrrgh. This shit can play with your mind. I feel like I’m accomplishing at least twice as many tasks each day over the past few days than I have say only a week or two ago. Its a butt load of stuff to know, remember, and execute in seconds. I’ve been exhausted past few days mentally and physically.

Just about everybody has flown into PBI yesterday for this weekend. We suspect Sunday night and especially monday will be busier than hell. After Easter weekend, our busy season will steady decline for about 3-4 weeks thereafter.

On a fun note at work, I walked into the TRACON to sign in and uttered to the room “Lets rock and Roll guys”. The guys had such a kick throughout the morning on it, that everyone was saying it. It eventually made it onto the SIA board. I guess I’ll be coming up with new catch phrases.

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March 17, 2008 by T Love.

Kathy arrived in town Sunday evening. Its great to see her again. Its been about 3 weeks. We had dinner a few miles west in the town Wellington at some tavern place. Its not exactly cheap but we made out pretty good. Kathy got a free salad, I recieved a free desert for my b-day, and we both recieved a free beer. Not too shabby.

This morning, I worked at IBEX while Kathy brought me lunch and did some shopping. This afternoon is still undecided as to what to do. This evening, we are going to dress in green, and head to Clementis Ave at O’shays Pub. Dinner is still undecided as well. We are kind of winging it at the moment. Its kind of too windy to hit the beach with gusts 20-25mph.

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March 12, 2008 by T Love.

Not because I’m having fun, but becuase I work 6 or 7 days a week. I picked up a part time job to assist with the income. I had to otherwise I wouldn’t able to afford to live down here. I got hit with some higher and unexpected expenses.

Yesterday was my first real day off where I had no traveling or obligations. I was a lazy bum. I slept really well Monday night recieving about 8 hours of sleep. On Tuesday, I took 2, 2-3 hour naps. I just laid on the futon and did pretty much nothing but rest. It felt good.

Training at work hit a snag. I fired my primary trainer last week. My primary trainer knows his stuff, but we just weren’t clicking. I felt like I’ve wasted 4 weeks of training and all I got to show for it is an accumulation of training hours with nothing behind it. Other light bulbs are clicking on for me finally but its kind of too late especially on CD/FD. Its basically a mess but its not as bad as it seems.  Now my days off may be switching to Mon & Tues from Tues & Wed. Also, my supervisor is trying to align my schedule to better match my trainers schedule. In the old training administration, I was really only training 3 days a week instead of 5. There were many problems in the old regime and I was one contributing factor. Things are turning around for me.

Kathy comes in Sunday for a visit and my birthday. Yay. Can’t wait. And Young Man Kevin visits April 3-8. Finally some visitors. I’ll actually have a life for a few days.

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March 4, 2008 by T Love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnVJZkDuVBM&feature=related

 In response to this clip, the following: I’m F*in Ben Affleck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=het6hg2IlFw&NR=1

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